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Note: The following text is a quote: Ringleader of International Truck Theft Conspiracy Sentenced to Prison HOUSTON—A Houston man who recruited others to steal and transport millions of dollars of truck tractors, trailers and other heavy equipment to Central America has been sentenced to prison, United States Attorney Tim Johnson announced today. United States District Judge David Hittner sentenced Yuri David Melendez, 43, to a total of nine years in federal prison for his leadership role in the truck theft scheme and in an unrelated narcotics charge during a hearing today. Melendez, who was convicted of conspiracy to export and...

In this country, even a global warming denialist with a carbon fetish and bad intentions has the right to see the inner workings of government. Or, at least, he should. When leaked e-mails recently exposed talk of manipulating scientific evidence on global warming, Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section at The National Center for Atmospheric Research, argued that skeptics had cherry-picked and presented his comments out of context. To rectify this injustice, I sent Trenberth (and NCAR) a Freedom of Information Act request asking for his e-mail correspondences with other renowned climate scientists in an effort to help...

Both Steve McIntyre and I are mentioned in this comprehensive summary. I’ve posted some excerpts below, with a link to the full report in PDF form. It is well worth a read. – Anthony Cold facts about the hot topic of global temperature change after the Climategate scandal THE WHISTLE BLOWS FOR TRUTH The whistleblower deep in the basement of one of the ugly, modern tower-blocks of the dismal, windswept University of East Anglia could scarcely have timed it better. In less than three weeks, the world’s governing class – its classe politique – would meet in Copenhagen, Denmark, to...

While on the board of a Chicago-based charity, Barack Obama helped fund a carbon trading exchange that will likely play a critical role in the cap-and-trade carbon reduction program he is now trying to push through Congress as president. In 2000 and 2001, while Barack Obama served as a board member for a Chicago-based charitable foundation, he helped to fund a pioneering carbon trading exchange that is likely to fill a critical role in the controversial cap-and-trade carbon reduction scheme that President Obama is now trying to push rapidly through Congress. During those two years, the Joyce Foundation gave nearly...

Okay, so this may not be important breaking news about astronomy, but it may answer a burning question posed by most people who have watched or read "2001: A Space Odyssey": that is, why does the computer HAL-9000 sing the song 'Daisy Bell' as the astronaut Dave Bowman takes him apart? Well, Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke made HAL's final act in the world this song as a tribute to HAL's great ancestor, the first IBM computer to ever sing. Click below for more on this geeky topic! In 1962 Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote the novel – and...

Six Chinese Muslims who were held in the Guantánamo Bay prison camp for almost eight years have arrived on the tiny Pacific island of Palau. The detainees from the Turkic Uighur minority were arrested in Afghanistan during the opening days of military operations in 2001 and held as suspected militants until last year when a US military tribunal decided they were not 'enemy combatants'. The release of the men, who were greeted on arrival by Palau's President, Johnson Toribiong, is another small step in US President Barack Obama's struggle to close the controversial prison camp by January. Palau, situated 500...

BOSTON - A pharmacy college graduate conspired with two other men on a terror plot to kill two prominent U.S. politicians and carry out a holy war by attacking shoppers in U.S. malls and American troops in Iraq, prosecutors said Wednesday. But their plans — in which the men used code words like "peanut butter and jelly" for fighting in Somalia and "culinary school" for terrorist camps — were thwarted in part when they could not find training and were unable to buy automatic weapons, authorities said. Tarek Mehanna worked with the men from 2001 to May 2008 on the...

LONDON — A Briton accused of hacking into US military and NASA space agency computers was on Friday refused permission to appeal to the new Supreme Court in London against his extradition to the United States. The High Court had turned down Gary McKinnon's extradition challenges and on Friday refused him leave to appeal, ruling that that his case did not raise "points of law of general public importance" -- a prerequisite of being able to pursue a cause in the Supreme Court. The 43-year-old could spend life in prison if convicted by a US court of gaining access to...

Videos of news casts from 9/11/2001 September 11 Television Archive Linky

We have shared many triumphs and tragedies with the friends we have made here. We have mourned with many over the loss of loved ones, and have lost some of our own. I would like to pay tribute to all FReepers who have come here and become a part of our lives who have gone through the holidays without someone precious to them, and who face new challenges in the year to come. I just wanted those of you who lost a loved one in the past year or more to know that your friends are thinking about you at ...

The television in my house never gets turned on in the morning unless there's some earth-shattering event taking place. And if there weren't any Simpsons, it might never get turned on at all. This year had the power flowing early twice. The first was Inauguration Day. Even though this family had voted independent we had rallied hard for the legitimate winner, George W. Bush, and hard rallying was what was needed. We are of the side that knows that the U.S. Supreme Court simply upheld the law, and not twisting with the belief that a coup was enabled by ...

Investigators are trying to determine whether a San Diego sailor passed Navy secrets about security weaknesses and warship movements to a British man accused of having terrorist links, according to court documents unsealed yesterday. E-mail messages from the unnamed sailor, sent in late 2000 and 2001 before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, were found in December in computer files belonging to Babar Ahmad, who was detained Wednesday in London, according to the 31-page arrest affidavit. The computer files contained details about security arrangements and movements of the San Diego-based Constellation carrier battle group, which included the destroyer Benfold, on which...

In an interview with CNN over the weekend, President Obama said that he'd just learned that a November 2001 incident in Afghanistan -- where hundreds if not thousands of Taliban prisoners were killed by an Afghan warlord and buried in a mass grave -- may not have been properly investigated. "So what I’ve asked my national security team to do is to collect the facts for me that are known," the president said. "And we’ll probably make a decision in terms of how to approach it .... *snip* And if it appears that our conduct in some way supported violations...

The Comoros: foreign troops unload on the island of Mohéli MORONI, 19 déc (AFP) - foreign troops unloaded Wednesday morning on the island comorienne of Mohéli, and took control of the army, the gendarmerie and the police force, according to testimonys' on the spot, of which that of a former minister, contacted on the telephone. The attackers launched leaflets affirming that they were "the army of the United States" and that their intervention was related to the fight against terrorism, according to inhabitants' of the capital, Fomboni, of which the former minister Mohamed Hassanari. Military formation, of almost a ...

For nearly a century now, Hollywood has inspired generations of Americans with the central truth behind the American Dream: in this country, people are free to choose their own destiny. It’s the moral message found in every film that features the classic Hollywood Hero. Here’s a look at how our movie heroes were shaped by American values, a personal look at how the Hollywood Hero can inspire our lives, and the belief that, despite the rise of explicitly anti-American movies, the Hollywood Hero will continue to ride to the rescue.

Prosecuting Terror No Choice but Guilty Lackawanna Case Highlights Legal Tilt By Michael Powell Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, July 29, 2003; Page A01 First of two articles LACKAWANNA, N.Y. -- Even now, after the arrests and the anger and the world media spotlight, the mystery for neighbors in this old steel town remains this: Why would six of their young men so readily agree to plead guilty to terror charges, accepting long prison terms far from home? The reality appears to fall between such disbelief and talk of sleeper cells. Two men who were veterans of the war in...

Not all will take the time to open and view this. Those who do, will be glad they did. http://www.4shared.com/file/63757046/6340762f/World_Trade_Center.html

Tonight, we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. Our grief has turned to anger and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done. Aericans have known surprise attacks, but never before on thousands of civilians. All of this was brought upon us in a single day, and night fell on a different world, a world where freedom itself is under attack. The terrorists' directive commands them to kill Christians and Jews, to kill all Americans and make no distinctions among military and civilians,...

A 21-year-old citizen of Chad who has been held for seven years at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba must be released, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said the government had not proven that Mohammed el Gharani was an enemy combatant and the detainee must be freed and sent home soon either to Saudi Arabia, where he was raised and his family lives, or Chad. Leon's ruling comes just before President-elect Barack Obama, who has vowed to close the prison camp, takes office on Tuesday. Since Obama's election in November, federal...

A real sad example on how these brain dead morons have no idea when was the biggest event in American history Attack of the Brain dead Sheeple...

Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama was quick to blame the bankruptcy of Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers on Republicans’ “failed philosophy”. Obama’s September 15 comments were repeated throughout the media--yet reporters have not noted Obama’s glaring conflict of interest—the Lehman debt owed to a bank owned by the financier who loaned millions of dollars to Tony Rezko. Jockeying among the other debtors seeking repayment under Chapter 11 bankruptcy rules is BNP Paribas, a large French bank whose largest single private shareholder is Nadhmi Auchi’s General Mediterranean Holdings (GMH). BNP Paribas is owed $250 million by Lehman. Nadhmi Auchi is an...

The tape recording of an interview that Barack Obama gave to Radio Station WBEZ in Chicago in 2001 surfaced, and in that interview Mr. Obama, then a law professor and a state senator, lays out how he would redistribute the wealth. He sounds like a man with a plan. .... Mr. Obama doesn't think much of the Constitution, or even of the Supreme Court justices who have rewritten it over the years to accommodate notions of "social justice." The Warren Court, which wrote finis to public-school segregation with its unanimous Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, has been...

All I can say is "Wow." If McCain had known of this tape a few weeks ago, the chance to hammer Obama into submission would have been possible. Now, with just 8 days to election, he must work fast to exploit the shocking admissions made by Obama that 1) he believes that the Warren Court did not "break free from the essential constraints" found in the Constitution in order to redistribute wealth to the Black poor; and 2) he believes in "redistributive change" for America. Here's the video of Obama's interview on Public Radio station WBEZ-FM in 2001: == PLEASE...

Obama Bombshell Audio Uncovered. He wants to Radically Reinterpret the Constitution to Redistribute Wealth!! In a 2001 Chicago Public Radio Interview Obama is discussing the best way to bring about a Redistribution of Wealth!!! This Video Exposes the radical underneath the rhetoric!!! A great video showing this redistribution of wealth started before 2001...as revealed in this radio interview at that time. It is scary how he calls it a tragedy that there was not redistribution of wealth done with the Civil Rights movement.

CBS) Shortly after 9/11, the Pentagon ordered a top secret team of American commandos into Afghanistan with a single, simple order: kill Osama bin Laden. It was America's best chance to eliminate the leader of al Qaeda. The inside story of exactly what happened in that mission, and how close it came to its objective has never been told until now. The man you are about to meet was the officer in command, leading a team from the U.S. Army's mysterious Delta Force - a unit so secret, it's often said Delta doesn't exist. But you are about to see...

War is a miserable business. The lives of a nation's finest patriots are sacrificed. Innocent people suffer and die. Commerce is disrupted, economies are damaged. Strategic interests shielded by years of patient statecraft are endangered as the exigencies of war and diplomacy conflict. However heady the appeal of a call to arms, however just the cause, we should still shed a tear for all that will be lost when war claims its wages from us. Shed a tear, and then get on with the business of killing our enemies as quickly as we can, and as ruthlessly as we must....

Message From: Semper Fi 1st Sgt Dave Jobe "Baker 8": How are you all doing? The proud warriors of Baker Company wanted to do something to pay tribute to our fallen comrades. So since we are part of the only Infantry Battalion left in Iraq the one way that we could think of doing that is by taking a picture of Baker Company saying the way we feel. It would be awesome if you could find a way to share this with our fellow countrymen. I was wondering if there was any way to get this into your papers to...

<p>HOUGHTON -- Federal and state law enforcement officials remained on the Michigan Tech University campus late Monday after bombs found at two university buildings were disarmed. Radical environmentalists are considered possible suspects, a county official said.</p> <p>The bombs, described by university spokesmen as the "real thing," were discovered early Monday morning by campus public safety officers at the U.J. Noblet Forestry Building and the U.S. Forest Service Engineering Laboratory.</p>

WBNS TV in Columbus, Ohio is reporting a mysterious powder has been found in a "business sized" envelope in Downtown Columbus. It was delivered to a building and it came from an Ohio doctor. Supposively there was some writing that looked like Arabic writing... I have no more details to report because I'm at work. I just got this from my 14 yr. old daughter.

Did the apparent suicide of Dr. Bruce Ivins solve the Anthrax Murders ? Let's wait and see.

A Reminder of Mark Warner's 2001 "No Tax Pledge" "The voters of Virginia know all too well as evidenced by the 2001 gubernatorial debates, where Mark Warner repeatedly pledged to the working families of Virginia that he would not raise taxes, that he broke that promise upon taking office and instead gave Virginians a $1.4 billion tax increase, the largest in Virginia history, despite there being a significant budget surplus of $324 million."

Hey, Wasn't Everybody Stepping on American Flags Back in 2001? Marathon Pundit finds a photo of Obama's friend, donor, and former fellow board member Bill Ayers, stepping on an American flag. Eh, it's a long time ago, right? It was the '60s. Every young person did things they regretted back then. Oh, wait, this photo is from 2001... the same year Obama served together on the board of the Woods Fund and Obama accepted a $200 campaign contribution from him.

You all do a fantastic job nominating the Quote of the Day, I thought it might be fun for you to pick your favorite for the Quote of the Year. You can use the links below to select the one that you think merits the title of Quote of the Year. You can post the entire quote or the date and name of your favorite. January February March April May June July August September October November December

The Rev. Jerry Falwell said late Thursday he did not mean to blame feminists, gays or lesbians for bringing on the terror attacks in New York and Washington this week, in remarks on a television program earlier in the day...

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — An aide says science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke has died. Rohan De Silva says Clarke died early Wednesday after suffering from breathing problems. He was 90-years-old. Clarke is the author of more than 100 books, including "2001: A Space Odyssey."

"QUOTE "Great to have you back. Just don't steal the silverware!" -- President Bush greeting Democratic National Committee "Chairman Terry McAuliffe on a White House receiving line before the Dec. 2 Kennedy Center Honors. The husband of Kennedy Center trustee Dorothy McAuliffe replied, "I have no intention of doing that, sir." A few minutes later during cocktail chitchat with Vice President Cheney, McAuliffe downed a crab cake and said: "We're going to have a great 2002. But since I'm eating your food, let's not talk about 2004." " to see the rest check out washington post link

<p>Haiti's government, while controlled by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his party, spent $7.3 million between 1997 and 2002 lobbying the U.S. government as more than 80 percent of the country was impoverished.</p> <p>During this time, U.S. funding to Haiti — a typical measure of lobbying success — declined, and its economy foundered, fueling his opposition's successful effort to depose Mr. Aristide last week for the second time in 15 years.</p>

"At the beginning of 2001, someone brought us a letter from a certain Khan. We did not know if the letter was genuine or a forgery by Israel to lure us into a trap. In any case, we rejected [the approach]. We were not interested in having nuclear weapons or a nuclear reactor. We never met Khan." Abdul Qadeer Khan masterminded Pakistan's nuclear program, and has admitted selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya, and North Korea. Regarding Syria's response to the September 6 Israeli attack on an unidentified target in its area, Assad said that Syria has a right to...

From the Arkansas News Bureau in 2004: "I would not deny that my sense of the reality of redemption is a factor," the former Baptist pastor said in a radio interview with KUAR in Little Rock. "And I don't know that I can apologize for that because I would hate to think of the kind of human I would be if I thought people were beyond forgiveness and beyond reformation and beyond some sense of improvement." … "Let's face it, I give a reason every time I do one of these, but it may not be as extensive as a...

I prank, therefore I am Engineering students have pulled some amazing pranks over the years. But UBC's Golden Gate prank may have been the greatest everBy ERIN MILLAR -- Maclean'sAt about 3:40 a.m. on Feb. 5, 2001, a moving van stopped abruptly in the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge. Although it was still dark, witnesses said they saw around a dozen figures emerge and push a large object over the side of the bridge. They then reboarded the van, and sped away into the night. Nothing to see here. Move along. A couple of hours later, as the morning...

Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson waded into the politically potent issue of Social Security on Friday and proposed overhauling the retirement system by creating 401(k)-style personal accounts. Tampering with Social Security is fraught with political peril and President George W. Bush's attempts to change it during his second term fizzled as lawmakers balked at his drive to create private investment accounts subject to the whims of the stock market. Thompson, a former senator from Tennessee, is seeking to show he is willing to take on tough issues if elected in November 2008, telling a news conference in Washington he is...

We have insulted God at the highest level of our government. Then, we say, "Why does this happen?" It is happening because God Almighty is lifting His protection from us. Once that protection is gone, we are vulnerable because we are a free society.

'Fear of unknown' leads to culture clash A mosque is under construction in the hills around Wilno. It's causing concern in Canada's cradle of Polish Catholicism Kelly Egan The Ottawa Citizen Monday, January 28, 2002 In the newly fallen snow, along Old Barry's Bay Road, the sacred sentinels are freshly cast in white on the edge of the woods, silently expressing a people's weathered endurance. There is a plaster Jesus, encircled with plastic lilies and sheltered in a wooden hollow, and Mary, a giant silhouette in steel, and, farther along, Mary and the baby Jesus together, in a locked glass ...

December 5, 2001 Suicide Blunderers Terrorists kill selves, blame Jews. By Jeremy Lott If body count or media coverage are the yardsticks, 2001 was a banner year for terrorists. The World Trade Center and Pentagon bombings were an unthinkable masterstroke, producing a media spectacle that rocked the world. It would be hard to come up with a better symbolic bloody nose to the Great Satan than the collapsed Twin Towers and soldiers scrambling to pull bodies from the burning wreckage of their own headquarters. Worse yet, a handful of poorly trained men armed only with box cutters were able to ...

Video greeting to NASA JPL to mark the Iapetus flyby of Cassini spacecraft -- Sept. 10, 2007 by Arthur C. Clarke (The following is a transcript of the video greeting.) Hello! This is Arthur Clarke, joining you from my home in Colombo, Sri Lanka. I'm delighted to be part of this event to mark Cassini's flyby of Iapetus. I send my greetings to all my friends - known and unknown - who are gathered for this important occasion. I only wish I could be with you, but I'm now completely wheelchaired by Polio and have no plans to leave Sri...

Might be a good time to revisit how we all heard about the the attack on 9/11 and how we reacted to the darkest day in American history. What emotions were strongest for you on that day? How did you find out? Did you stay at work? Did you go Home? Who did you call?

A former director of the Drug Enforcement Administration warned federal officials shortly after the September 11 attacks that violent drug cartels from Mexico were teaming with Muslim gangs to fund terrorist organizations overseas. Asa Hutchinson, who also has been a Homeland Security undersecretary, said that in 2001, DEA agents uncovered the link between the drug cartels and terrorist groups but too few government officials listened. "I think it's important to recognize that the link between terrorism and drug trafficking exists," said Mr. Hutchinson in a phone interview from Arkansas. "While we are fighting terrorists, we should not neglect our fight...

HISTORY - Time line [some] Important dates in radical ISLAM VS WORLD 1263 - 1328 The 'Godfather of Islamic Fundamentalism' Who is the True Godfather of Islamic Fundamentalism? His name is Ibn Taymiyyah, or Taq ad-Din Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah, and he lived from 1263 to 1328. His name by birth was Ahmad ibn Abdul-Halim ibn Abdas-Salaam. This individual could be considered as the real godfather of fundamentalism. Maududi borrowed extensively from Taymiyyah's writings. http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/index.php? id=1194248__________________1347 [The Bahmani sultans & genocide on Indians]The Muslim conquests, down to the 16th century, were for the Hindus a pure struggle of life and death....

Bin Laden Video Fools AP I’m more convinced than ever that Osama bin Laden is no longer consuming oxygen, as another videotape is released by the As Sahab freakazoids: Bin Laden praises martyrdom in new video. CAIRO, Egypt - A new al-Qaida videotape posted Sunday on a militant Web site featured a short, undated clip of a weary-looking Osama bin Laden praising martyrdom. The bin Laden clip, which lasted less than a minute, was part of a 40-minute video featuring purported al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan paying tribute to fellow militants who have been killed in the country. Bin Laden glorified...

WASHINGTON — A new threat assessment from U.S. counterterrorism analysts says that Al Qaeda has used its safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border to restore its operating capabilities to a level unseen since the months before Sept. 11, 2001. A counterterrorism official familiar with a five-page summary of the document — titled "Al Qaeda better positioned to strike the West" — called it a stark appraisal. The analysis will be part of a broader meeting at the White House on Thursday about an upcoming National Intelligence Estimate. The official and others spoke to The Associated Press on condition they not...